


Happy Ending

by tuesday



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Canon Compliant, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, F/F, F/M, Gen, Major Character Injury, Multi, Non-Canonical Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-28 04:29:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18749050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tuesday/pseuds/tuesday
Summary: Story contains Endgame spoilers.Five people who could have made their own happy ending, and one who did.





	Happy Ending

**Author's Note:**

> If you want a fix-it, please stop reading at the end of section three. Content advisories are covered by the tags.
> 
> Thanks to natcat for the speedy beta and excellent help! You are ever a star.

1.

If they didn't want Peter to use the Gauntlet, then they should've paid more attention to what he was doing when he hugged Tony's dying body for what he refused to let be the last time. He had a healing factor. There were more problems than half the universe having turned to dust or the army Tony had dusted himself. There was a complete Infinity Gauntlet right there. Tony couldn't feel his arm anymore, couldn't feel a thing as Peter worked it free.

Pepper pulled Peter away so she could have her moment with Tony, too, but that was fine. Peter had already gotten what he needed. He took a few steps back. He slipped his hand inside. Peter could see the way Tony's eyes went wide over Pepper's shoulder.

"Sorry, Mr. Stark," Peter said, "but I don't accept this outcome."

Peter brought his fingers together as, too late, Rhodey and five other people lunged for him.

It hurt. _It hurt_. Almost as bad as turning to dust. Fire and electricity raced up his arm, reached his face, his body healing the nerves only for them to shred again.

Peter thought about the people who'd died. He thought about what Thanos had said about people starving, about not enough resources. He thought about how all he wanted was health and happiness for everyone he'd ever known and loved, for all the innocent people out there who just wanted to live their lives. He thought about how what he really wanted, needed, right now was a happy ending.

Maybe it was too much—it was probably too much—but he thought, _Please, please, please,_ not even sure what he was asking for anymore, but begging for it with his entire soul.

He didn't know what he was asking for, but he felt the power surge through and out of him as it gave it to him.

Peter couldn't see out of his right eye. His left showed only white. The pain was overwhelming. He went to his knees.

Someone called out his name. Someone was holding his arm, keeping him from tipping over.

"I think I'm going to pass out now," Peter said faintly.

And then he did.

—

He came to to someone checking his pulse.

"That was incredibly stupid," came Tony's voice, sounding stronger now.

"I learned from the best," Peter croaked out.

"I'm going to kill you. Do you have any idea what I went through to get you back?"

Peter did not. But hearing it would have to wait a while longer. He needed to pass out again.

—

Really, he was in and out of consciousness for a while there.

—

"—can't believe you brought back the buildings, too." Tony was speaking. He was holding Peter's hand. "And here I thought _I_ overdid things."

Peter slowly opened his eyes. He couldn't see out of the right one yet. The left one slowly focused to show the white of the Avengers Compound's infirmary ceiling.

"Now if you could just _wake up_ ," Tony's voice wobbled, "that would round things out. Make a proper happily ever after."

"I'm awake." Peter's voice was scratchy. His throat felt shredded, like he'd been screaming.

Tony straightened in Peter's peripheral vision. Pepper was sitting beside him. Tony squeezed Peter's hand. "Hey, Pete. How are you feeling?"

"Worse than that time I got a building dropped on me." Peter swallowed. "But I'm alive."

Tony made a sound. It might have been a laugh. It might have been a sob. "You're alive."

"So." Peter weakly squeezed Tony's hand back. "I kind of missed a lot, huh?"

"Five years." Tony's smile was heartbreaking. "I'll fill you in."

 

* * *

 

2.

Peter Parker handed over the gauntlet. Something in it called to Carol, but that wasn't why she slipped it on.

"How are you going to get through?" the kid had asked, and yeah, Carol could have bulled her way through easily, but it occurred to her that she didn't have to.

She could go through the obstacles and she could go over them, but why not just remove them entirely? The gauntlet resized itself until it was a perfect fit. Carol winked at Peter's wide-eyed expression and smiled.

She snapped her fingers, and yeah, it burned. It was almost as bad as when she had an Infinity Stone channel its energy through her then-human body. But Carol wasn't human anymore, not entirely. She was a part of the stone; the stone was part of her. Like called to like and let it course through her, damage minimal, the main thrust of it glancing off.

Dust rained down around them.

"I don't know. Looks like a pretty easy walk to me." Carol pulled off the gauntlet and tossed it back to Peter. She staunched her bleeding nose with the back of her hand. "Think you can handle it?"

Carol sat down for a moment. She'd get up in just a second, but damn, that had packed a punch.

Valkyrie touched down in front of her, dismounted the pegasus, and offered her a hand up. Carol took it.

"Score one for Earth," Valkyrie said.

"Higher, further, faster, baby," Carol said. She pulled Valkyrie down to sit next to her in her suit of armor. "I'll get up in a minute. Sit with me."

Valkyrie's smile was enchanting. "Yeah, sure. I'll sit with you, hero."

Carol leaned into Valkyrie’s side. They watched the kid make his way to the van, though there was no one left who'd stop him. After a minute, Carol stood up. She stretched.

A guy in a cloak drifted up to her. He looked her up and down. He said, "I didn't see that coming."

"Maybe you needed to look harder."

The guy smirked. "Maybe you're right."

Carol knocked her shoulder into Valkyrie's as she stood, too. "What are you doing after this?"

"I think I could stick around for a night or two," Valkyrie said.

"Didn't see that, either," cloak guy said.

Carol ignored him to thread her arm through Valkyrie's. "Want to get a drink?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

 

* * *

 

3.

Tony was going toe to toe with Thanos. Pepper wasn't going to let him face that alone. At one point, Tony looked over at the wizard who'd appeared in the park years ago to pull him through a portal. While he did, Pepper had an idea.

That gauntlet was one Tony had made. Tony had also made the armor Pepper was wearing. He'd complained for years about that time he'd stormed the oil rig with Rhodey only to find that ammunition wasn't universal. Pepper had always suspected it was one more reason he'd been so obsessed with perfecting the nanotech.

The suits were universal. All Pepper had to do was reach a hand out at the right time, and Thanos no longer had the stones. She had just enough time to meet Tony's eyes, to see the denial, the horror there as he made the same play and came up empty, and then she was bringing her fingers together.

What came next hurt. _It hurt_. It was worse than Extremis. Worse than anything Pepper had ever felt before.

When it was over, Tony was crouched in front of her. His armor peeled back. His hands were cold on her face.

"No, no, no," he kept repeating. "Come on, Pep, fight this. We perfected Extremis. _Use it_. You can do this."

"Tony, honey." Pepper smiled at him, loving and wry. "What do you think is burning your hands?"

Pepper was a phoenix. The damage done to her was enough to kill another person. It was nearly enough to kill her. Tony took a step back.

Pepper was reborn in fire.

 

* * *

 

4.

Thor got the gauntlet. He didn't hesitate to put it on. He was a hero. He'd had a hero's journey. He was ready for it to end.

Thor snapped. He lived. Thanos did not.

"You did it," Steve said. He should have been happy, but his expression was cautious. "We won." His tone was coaxing. "Thor, put the gauntlet down."

Thor smiled, tremulous, but true. All he saw was stars. The working wasn't done. There were so many people they hadn't saved. People Thor hadn't saved.

Thor had come so far. He was a hero and he was a king; he'd been a brother and a son. They all demanded the same thing of him.

Thor snapped. They lived.

(Thor did not.)

 

* * *

 

5.

Thanos snapped—again and for the first time.

The world was unmade. The universe was unmade. All of his children, all the people he'd ever professed to love, gone in an instant. In its place, he built something new.

It destroyed him, but he was determined to the last. He may have had to sacrifice every person in existence, but finally, finally, he could rest.

None would know to thank him. None would know to curse his name.

 

* * *

 

\+ 1.

"I am Iron Man," Tony said, and yeah, it hurt, and yeah, it was going to kill him, but it was triumphant. It was joyful. It was a little bit spite, but mostly it was the knowledge that everyone he loved would be safe and alive because Tony had stepped up, because he'd made them that way.

Tony snapped.

The worst part, the one thing that hurt the most—peacefully looking on Rhodey's and Peter's and Pepper's already mourning faces, knowing that they were safe and alive, that someday they'd be happy again—was that this was the last time. They'd be on their own after this. He had to trust that they could carry on, that they could flourish without him.

His friends, his family, were amazing. Of course they could. Of course they would.

As far as Tony was concerned? This was a happy ending.


End file.
